Valiant
Valiant is a score-attack dodging game for Android, built solo in 30 hours for the University of Bolton's charity game jam on the theme "Fall," controlled entirely by tilting the phone.
The Project
My goal going in was a complete, finished, polished, and bug-free submission, and I got there, though a few art assets came from an earlier C++ SDL university project, reworked rather than built from scratch, to buy back time for the systems that actually needed it. Valiant is a straightforward score-attack dodger at its core, but the difficulty ramps progressively, and the movement scheme leans entirely on the phone's accelerometer, with calibration built in to tune the dead zone to how you're holding the device.
A Special Ability Built From the Theme
"Fall" turned into a special ability rather than a level gimmick: triggering it sends the ship travelling backward through time, temporarily granting invulnerability at the cost of giving up direct control while it plays out. Difficulty scales through randomized map arrangements per difficulty tier, so runs stay varied instead of repeating the same obstacle pattern once you've learned it.
Post-Jam Reflection
I also adapted the game to work with an external controller for demoing, which came in handy for showing it off without handing someone an unfamiliar phone. Looking back, I'd overestimated how much original art I'd have time for and leaned harder on reused assets than I'd planned, prioritizing the soundtrack, menus, and general polish instead, a trade-off that paid off in how finished the submission felt, and one that sharpened how I estimated scope on the jams that followed.
The Android APK and full source are both up on GitHub, grab the APK directly if you want to try it on your phone.